Tilda Swinton: ‘David Bowie is like my cousin’

British actress Tilda Swinton has grown so close to David Bowie since he hired her for a video project she now thinks of him as family.

The “Michael Clayton” star was shocked to receive a phone call from the reclusive music legend last year asking her to appear as his onscreen wife in his promo for “The Stars (Are Out Tonight),” the second single from his comeback album “The Next Day.”

Swinton has revealed they kept in touch after completing the video shoot and she now thinks of Bowie as one of her closest confidantes.

(Jamie McCarthy/Staff)

She tells Thedailybeast.com, “The moment happens when the phone rings and it’s someone who calls themself David Bowie, and you never stop pinching yourself. It was the easiest thing in the world. … I’ve had a wonderful ride with meeting people who have been my north stars, and Bowie’s definitely one of them. He feels like my cousin; like the cousin I never had. … He’s always felt like a cousin.”